The Watermill Center’s Viewpoints lecture series, which draws speakers from diverse disciplines to discuss ideas and issues important to contemporary discourse, will launch next Thursday with Penny Arcade.

Dining, creativity, surfing, and roots music are on Guild Hall’s cultural menu this week, starting Sunday morning, when “Stirring the Pot,” a series of culinary-centric conversations, will feature Tim and Nina Zagat, who founded the Zagat Survey 40 years ago. Initially a collection of reviews of New York City restaurants by diners, the survey at its height included 70 cities. In 2011, Google acquired it for $125 million.